William Howarth was an American writer and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He published fourteen books and also wrote for such national periodicals as National Geographic,Smithsonian,The Washington Post,The New York Times,and The American Scholar.
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view,where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It was first originated by Joseph Meeker as an idea called "literary ecology" in his The Comedy of Survival:Studies in Literary Ecology (1972).
The environmental humanities is an interdisciplinary area of research,drawing on the many environmental sub-disciplines that have emerged in the humanities over the past several decades,in particular environmental literature,environmental philosophy,environmental history,science and technology studies,environmental anthropology,and environmental communication. Environmental humanities employs humanistic questions about meaning,culture,values,ethics,and responsibilities to address pressing environmental problems. The environmental humanities aim to help bridge traditional divides between the sciences and the humanities,as well as between Western,Eastern,and Indigenous ways of relating to the natural world and the place of humans within it. The field also resists the traditional divide between "nature" and "culture," showing how many "environmental" issues have always been entangled in human questions of justice,labor,and politics. Environmental humanities is also a way of synthesizing methods from different fields to create new ways of thinking through environmental problems.
Ecolinguistics,or ecological linguistics,emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm of linguistic research,widening sociolinguistics to take into account not only the social context in which language is embedded,but also the wider ecological context,including other species and the physical environment.
Darwinian literary studies is a branch of literary criticism that studies literature in the context of evolution by means of natural selection,including gene-culture coevolution. It represents an emerging trend of neo-Darwinian thought in intellectual disciplines beyond those traditionally considered as evolutionary biology:evolutionary psychology,evolutionary anthropology,behavioral ecology,evolutionary developmental psychology,cognitive psychology,affective neuroscience,behavioural genetics,evolutionary epistemology,and other such disciplines.
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE),also known as ASLE-USA,is the principal professional association for American and international scholars of ecocriticism and environmental humanities. It was founded in 1992 at a special session of the Western Literature Association conference in Reno,Nevada for the purpose of "sharing of facts,ideas,and texts concerning the study of literature and the environment."
The ecopedagogy movement is an outgrowth of the theory and practice of critical pedagogy,a body of educational praxis influenced by the philosopher and educator Paulo Freire. Ecopedagogy's mission is to develop a robust appreciation for the collective potentials of humanity and to foster social justice throughout the world. It does so as part of a future-oriented,ecological and political vision that radically opposes the globalization of ideologies such as neoliberalism and imperialism,while also attempting to foment forms of critical ecoliteracy. Recently,there have been attempts to integrate critical eco-pedagogy,as defined by Greg Misiaszek with Modern Stoic philosophy to create Stoic eco-pedagogy.
Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer,scholar,activist,and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her theoretical work extending ecofeminist thought into queer theory,queer ecology,vegetarianism,and animal liberation has been influential within women's studies. A cofounder of the Minnesota Green Party,Gaard documented the transition of the U.S. Green movement into the Green Party of the United States in her book,Ecological Politics. She is currently a professor of English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in Women's Studies at Metropolitan State University,Twin Cities.
Robert T. Tally Jr. is a professor of English at Texas State University. His research and teaching focuses on the relations among space,narrative,and representation,particularly in U.S. and comparative literature,and he is active in the emerging scholarly fields of geocriticism,literary geography,and the spatial humanities. Tally is the editor of "Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies," a Palgrave Macmillan book series established in 2013. The translator of Bertrand Westphal's Geocriticism:Real and Fictional Spaces and the editor of Geocritical Explorations,In addition to his numerous essays on literature,criticism,and theory,Tally has written books on Herman Melville,Edgar Allan Poe,Kurt Vonnegut,and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit,as well as a critical introduction to the work of literary critic and theorist Fredric Jameson.
Ecomusicology is an area of study that explores the relationships between music or sound,and the natural environment. It is a study which encompasses a variety of academic disciplines including musicology,biology,ecology and anthropology. Ecomusicology combines these disciplines to explore how sound is produced by natural environments and,more broadly how cultural values and concerns about nature are expressed through sonic mediums. Ecomusicology explores the ways that music is composed to replicate natural imagery,as well as how sounds produced within the natural environment are used within musical composition. Ecological studies of sounds produced by animals within their habitat are also considered to be part of the field of ecomusicology. In the 21st century,studies within the field the ecomusicology have also become increasingly interested in the sustainability of music production and performance.
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective of Green politics that calls for an egalitarian,collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group. Today,there are several branches of ecofeminism,with varying approaches and analyses,including liberal ecofeminism,spiritual/cultural ecofeminism,and social/socialist ecofeminism. Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art,social justice and political philosophy,religion,contemporary feminism,and poetry.
Anthony James Carrigan was a British academic noted for his pioneering work in combining the theoretical paradigms of postcolonialism and environmental studies.
Serenella Iovino is an Italian cultural and literary theorist,and a Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is considered one of the main environmental philosophers of Italy.
Ecofiction is the branch of literature that encompasses nature or environment-oriented works of fiction. While this super genre's roots are seen in classic,pastoral,magical realism,animal metamorphoses,science fiction,and other genres,the term ecofiction did not become popular until the 1960s when various movements created the platform for an explosion of environmental and nature literature,which also inspired ecocriticism. Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary point of view,where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. Environmentalists have claimed that the human relationship with the ecosystem often went unremarked in earlier literature.
Ecomedia is a field of study that deals with the relationship between non-print media and the natural environment. Generally,this is divided into two domains:cultural representations of the environment in media and environmental impact of media forms.
Laura Wright is a professor of English at Western Carolina University. Wright proposed vegan studies as a new academic field,and her 2015 book The Vegan Studies Project:Food,Animals,and Gender in the Age of Terror served as the foundational text of the discipline. As of 2021 she had edited two collections of articles about vegan studies.
Ecomafia is an Italian neologism for criminal activities related to organized crime which cause damage to the environment. The term was coined by the Italian environmentalist organization Legambiente in 1994,and has since seen widespread use. In Italy,environmental crime is one of the fastest growing and most profitable forms of criminal activity. As of 2012,an estimated 30% of Italy's waste is disposed of illegally by organized crime syndicates. The United Nations Environment Programme estimated that criminal organizations earned approximately $20–30 billion USD from environmental crimes.
Eli Clare is an American writer,activist,educator,and speaker. His work focuses on queer,transgender,and disability issues. Clare was one of the first scholars to popularize the bodymind concept.
Catherine Elizabeth Rigby is a scholar in the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities.
Terry Gifford is a British scholar at Bath Spa University and poet. He is known for his role in developing British ecocriticism and his research interests include pastoral literary theory,ecofeminist analysis of D.H. Lawrence,John Muir,Ted Hughes,creative writing,poetry,and mountaineering. He has also published his own poetry collections.
